How can Reality TV help you be a better Ag Sales Professional?
Twenty-one years ago, I was running hills on a training run to get ready for my 7th marathon. As I did, something snapped in my ankle and suddenly I was in extreme pain and couldn’t put weight on it. No, it wasn’t my Achilles heel, although it felt like it. The next nineteen years were a medical odyssey of trying to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it. Two surgeries, umpteen hundred physical therapy appointments and numerous cortisone injections but still not better.
Fast forward 19 years and my wife and I have become fans of the reality show “The Biggest Loser” and “Extreme Weight Loss”. If you can handle the emotional side of the show, it’s worth watching. The way the contestant’s lives are transformed forever is truly amazing. The personal journey they came from to get to their weight and the demons they exercise as they lose the weight is incredible.
The inactivity of the previous 19 years added a few pounds too many and I was gaining at a faster rate. Not to mention, I was snoring (through my CPAP) and was told I needed to get on cholesterol medicine. My physical fitness was at an all-time low as I watched one of the episodes. Then it hit me. The lessons from the show started sinking in. I was too busy focusing on the high level of physical fitness I was missing to realize what I still could do. I thought about the sub 7 minute miles I could click off so easily and how now, I could barely shuffle down the street. I decided, after seeing these contestants deal with their problems, I could still shuffle. So, I shuffled. Over the course of the next two years, shuffling turned into jogging, running, biking, hiking and ultimately back into racing (triathlons) but with a much more appreciative view.
Your territory may go through the same journey. It starts out lean and full of positive energy as the company hands over the geography or customers to you. “Good luck, kid!” is the usual sentiment. Over the years, you add to it, going from lean & mean to healthy, then maybe stout or pudgy. Maybe your territory gets overweight with customers that aren’t producing for you and hold you back from reaching your goals. Take some lessons from one of the more positive reality shows out there and reinvent your territory back to a healthy business. Here’s how!
How Do the Lessons Apply to Your Territory?
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Start:
Too often, we look at the top of the mountain (goal), determine that it’s such a big job and then procrastinate. At sales meetings, we see the top performers getting awards and hearing great stories of how good it’s going for them. Customers are just jumping at the opportunity to work with them. They are on top of their game. Then we go back to our territory and fret over how big the journey will be to get to that level. So, we do the worst possible thing, which is to procrastinate. We know we need to prospect and call on more customers per day, but we find reasons to keep doing what’s comfortable or safe. We know we need to use the basic steps of the sales process, but we find ways to make our visits more like social visits because that feels good or seems not-so-salesy.
The victory for any amateur athlete is not that you cross the finish line, it’s that you show up at the Starting Line.
So, whether the timing is right or wrong – just get started. That means now – I mean right after you get done reading this article!
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Do What is Sustainable:
My next and biggest lesson in this whole journey is “Do What is Sustainable”. How many of us have made great resolutions on Jan 1, worked hard on them for a couple weeks and then failed to keep up the momentum? We make a grand event out of the process. We sign up at the gym or we shop for brand new workout cloths. Then we announce that we are going to work out for an hour each day for the rest of our lives. Here’s my advice – Skip the pomp and ceremony of it all. Start on an unimportant time or place. Pick a Tuesday at 11:37 or a Thursday at 9:14 p.m. The New Year’s Eve hangover lasts longer than most people’s ability to uphold a resolution. So, don’t wait and don’t gather an audience before doing it. Just prove it by going and doing it.
Start small and gain momentum. I started my fitness journey with a couple hundred yards of shuffling, followed by walking fast and then slow.
By starting small, you will sustain it. Who can’t spare 10, 15 or 20 minutes of their time on a critical task? Give yourself a zero tolerance on meeting your commitment. By this, I mean you do it every single day. No excuses, no exceptions. In your territory – You commit to making two prospect calls or writing three proposals or stopping your day for 15 minutes to get organized. If you say you will do it most days or as much as you can, you will fail. You will absolutely find something that gets in your way. At least for the first 3-6 months, make it a zero-tolerance policy on not missing a day.
Sure, I could have gone out the first day and ran for a mile. And that would have been that. A one day – one mile program.
What can you make a commitment to right now? Today? That you will complete every single day? 2 phone calls a day? Sounds easy. I’m sure you can do it. That adds about 500 phone calls a year to your sales process.
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Get a Support Network
Whatever shape or form it takes…friends, peers, a coach, a supervisor, self-development material, etc. You are going to hit some lows and some highs. Your success rate of surviving the lows goes up dramatically when you have a support network. Someone or something that can help you out of those times when things aren’t going so great. Someone who believes in you and your journey. Most importantly, this person is an accountability partner. You feel accountable to a higher cause when someone is expecting you to follow through on your plans.
The coaches on the Biggest Loser are as much a part of the competition as the contestants. They are there to of course push & drive contestants, but they also provide two key components. The first is expert advice. They advise on working too hard, not resting enough, injury prevention, nutrition, etc. You need to find the person that can help you with this kind of coaching. They need to know you and know your business.
The second thing the coaches are providing is belief. They believe in the contestant even when the contestant loses belief in themselves. You see this when the coach has pushed them and they hit rock bottom. The coach will turn the conversation from pushing them into one of believing in the contestant to accomplish and reach the goal. This phase is critical as many of the people on the show never had someone believe in them. This pulls them through this valley of despair and back onto the path of reaching their goal. Find this person in your life that does this for you. If it’s you, that’s awesome. Congratulations because that will help you through. Few are able to go it alone. Even those that have previously had success in their lives, still have those times of doubt and disbelief. Often, the show will have celebrity athletes as contestants that have grown out of shape and are now down on their fitness Gold medalists, super bowl champs, etc. They too need the power of a support network, the push to “Just Start” and a sustainable path.
So, Who is your accountability partner? Don’t wait for them to be assigned. We wouldn’t think of having someone assign our friends. So, don’t wait to be told who your accountability partner is. Look around and pick a positive, knowledgeable person within your organization.
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Know yourself
A key component to a healthy journey is knowing yourself, which means knowing what you need at each stage of the journey. Know when you are getting too low and need to utilize your resources – primarily your accountability partner. Know when you are going off track towards your objective – dashboards, CRM, peer advice, ride along coaching can all help with this. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Expand your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses. Know how you show up at work and in front of your customer. If you haven’t been through the quadrant training – do so. DISC is one of the more popular but there are many others. Know which quadrant you are in. If you haven’t been through something similar to Strength Finders or Myers Briggs assessments, I’d recommend them as well. These are great for understanding your strengths/weaknesses.
When contestants go through the show, they find out a lot about themselves. Most find out how resilient and tough they really can be. A few don’t stick with the program but even they too figure out what is important. By knowing when they will fail and when they will succeed, they know when to reach out for help or when to make course corrections so they can keep going.
What do you need right now to realize the internal motivation to start and keep going? A coach, a To-Do list item, a calendar invite, a reward for starting? Figure it out and get it!
In closing, whether your territory is in shape, a little pudgy or downright obese, get started today on getting it in shape. Follow the four steps below!
For Success in your territory
– Get Started
– Do What is Sustainable
– Get an Accountability Partner
– Know Yourself
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